Press Release

Enduring Spirit expresses, in Tibebe's words, his "freedom to explore diverse opportunities through the silent language of color". The exhibition features an array of paintings, each completed at different points in Tibebe's life, and signifying for the artist the distillation of a distinct moment's meditation. The resulting stylistic variety is staggering. On one end of the spectrum, Tibebe is ornate, and uses planar faceting techniques to compose an intricate landscape of dust-covered buildings and alleyways teeming with brightly-clothed pedestrians. In another work, he takes a diametrically opposed approach, and in a two-dimensional manner, creates an eerily empty green landscape, upon which a yellow gash and the dark shadows underneath, hints at the existence of a deep abyss that lies just beneath the surface. In his work, Tibebe makes much of the interplay between foreground and background elements, both as a means to sensitise the viewer to the existence of another plane and as a way to emotionally and spiritually journey there.